Punish Perpetrators of Babari Masjid Demolition As a secular humanist, I have no faith in the ‘super-powers’ of the religious structures but as a human right defender, I understand millions of people have because of inability of our state and the power elite in the society to keep people aware and provide them modern scientific…

Why Somnath cannot be a template for Ayodhya By Sudheendra Kulkarni* Only a negotiated settlement, based on mutual trust between Hindu-Muslim communities, can yield a solution to the Ayodhya issue – not the RSS strategy to make the Ram temple a symbol of Hindu triumphalism. The demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on…

Edition 2: No. 131 Editorial comment “Nobody is coming to end the occupation” is a simple, but catastrophic message in the context of the Palestine Israel conflict. It simply means that Palestinians are left to fend for themselves. The international community has functioned as a community which has left out the most vulnerable component of…

Edition 2: No. 130 International day of solidarity with Palestine- Looking back; looking ahead On November 29, 1947, after Great Britain–the mandatory power in Palestine–had asked the United Nations to meet in a special session to discuss the “problem of Palestine,” the General Assembly passed Resolution 181 (II) to end the British mandate by August…

Syria: The Uprising against President Al-Assad was Engineered in Washington By Eric Zuesse* Unlike so many online ‘news’ reports that are merely authoritarian trash because they don’t link to any of their sources (they rely instead upon dumb readers’ faith or trust in the ‘reporter’ or in the publisher, such as The New York Times…

Spare me Congress vs BJP debate: Arundhati Roy on why she’s returning her National Award Looks like the heat that the Centre is facing over the intolerant attitude of right-wing groups will not ebb anytime soon. Author, director, journalist Arundhati Roy has become the latest to join the bandwagon of eminent personalities to return their awards.…

Edition 2: No. 129 We gathered in Johannesburg (near Cottesloe) from 17 to 20 August 2015, to celebrate how the 1985 South African Kairos document, “Challenge to the Church,” responded to a moment of truth in the most painful days of Apartheid. That Kairos document inspired three decades of Kairos movements in many different contexts.…

Edition 2: No. 128 Israel unleashes its diplomatic thug on the UN By Jonathan Cook The appointment by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of one of his most hawkish and outspoken rivals as Israel’s new ambassador to the United Nations has prompted widespread consternation. As one Israeli analyst noted last week, Danny Danon’s appointment amounts…

In Gaza children are living in the rubble of last year’s war, paying the price for a conflict they had no part in. But this week our community has a real chance to help these kids get the homes, schools and health clinics they need. Let’s join together to demand Israel end its life-crushing blockade…

Can Pope Francis clean up God’s bank? Untraceable cash transfers and a culture of secrecy made the Vatican bank one of the world’s most notorious financial institutions. But Pope Francis’s attempts at reform are meeting ferocious resistance At 6.30 on the morning of 28 June 2013 – just three months into the reign of Pope…

What did Colonialism do to India? RAM PUNIYANI A video of Shashi Tharoor speaking at Oxford on a debate related to the colonial period has been ‘viral’ on the social circuit for a while. In this video Tharoor makes a passionate plea to the British that they make reparations for the losses to Indian economy…

English is a globally recognized language and the failure to comprehend it would set youth apart from the rest on the global stage. The Chief Minister’s insistence on regional languages as the primary mode of instruction has been met with skepticism and discomfort as parents took to the streets to voice their displeasure. In more…

Editorial comment In Libya, imperialist persist with the rot A report from The Economist describes how Libya’s oil output has been slashed down to productions figures as low as 500,000 barrels a day. At its crest, it used to be 1.7m. This paltry sum is what keeps the country. Even so its sales are the…

Edition 2: No. 127 Editorial comment “For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.” (Noam Chomsky) The world waits to see if the ICC will end Israel’s impunity. There is fear that it may just cave in under pressure from the big powers. The ICC is more famous for punishing leaders from the not-so-powerful…

Edition 2: No. 126 Editorial comment Israel and the Iran nuclear deal Why does Israel so fear the Iran nuclear deal? Are Israel’s fears that Iran will now develop nuclear weapons well founded? With what face does Israel condemn the deal when Israel itself has a nuclear arsenal which is, by no means, insignificant? Why…

Edition 2: No. 125 Editorial comment Israel persists with the notion of being the perpetual victim. It holds the world responsible for the horrendous and unpardonable holocaust the Jewish people suffered during the Second World War. Soon after, it maneuvered itself into a situation where it got for itself a state on land that…

Very recently, the Chairperson of Goa Toursim Development Corporation declared that those who opposed big projects in Goa must be deemed as anti-development. He was obviously referring to the opposition to the proposed monstrosity that Leading Hotels was installing in Tiracol although he named several other projects which had to be kept in abeyance owing…

Edition 2: No. 124 Editorial comment Jonathan Cook in an article Israel’s endless misery for Gaza is no policy at all confirms Israel’s colonial instincts in dealing with Gaza. Rather than move the dialogue that has been initiated between Hamas and Israel forward inch by inch at first and then accelerate to a quicker pace,…

16 The Milli Gazette, 16-30 June 2015 www.milligazette.com INTERNATIONAL by RANJAN SOLOMON The Modi establishment has taken some exceptionally retrograde steps as far as India’s long standing position on the Question of Palestine is concerned in the last year. His visit to Israel later this year…